The Island House: An abundance of history

By Jane Beathard

news@madison-press.com

Just a few nau­ti­cal miles from the leg­endary rev­elry of Put-in-Bay and South Bass Island, The Island House Inn in down­town Port Clin­ton offers quiet lux­ury and a glimpse of coastal Ohio history.

Located at 102 Madi­son St., the bou­tique hotel’s 38 newly ren­o­vated rooms com­bine mod­ern con­ve­niences like wire­less Inter­net and Direct TV with the atmos­phere of an 1800s inn.

“Our his­toric prop­erty is dif­fer­ent from the chain hotels in the area,” said gen­eral man­ager Kathy Kopechak. “We want to treat peo­ple like they are at home.”

Vis­i­tors and guests can relax in the rus­tic 1812 Food & Spir­its din­ing room and Rosie’s Bar & Grill, both located just off the lobby. Both are open week­days 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m and week­ends 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. A brunch buf­fet is avail­able in the din­ing room from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays.

Con­structed in 1886, The Island House replaced an inn of the same name, located on Sec­ond Street, that burned in 1882.

Ottawa County Sher­iff Con­rad Gern­hard con­structed and owned the new “gen­tle­men only” hotel, dou­bling the size of the orig­i­nal struc­ture and relo­cat­ing it to the heart of the grow­ing city. He also added mod­ern fea­tures (for the day) such as an indoor restroom on the first floor. Even­tu­ally, shared restrooms were added to each hotel floor.

Today, each air-conditioned room has a pri­vate bath, as well as a refrig­er­a­tor and cof­fee maker.

Sher­iff Gern­hard was a col­or­ful and enter­pris­ing fig­ure in the early days of Ohio’s North Coast. A Ger­man immi­grant, he was barely 18 and old enough to drink when he opened Port Clinton’s first saloon in 1870.

The Island House Inn in Port Clin­ton dates from 1886. A micro­tel, it fea­tures 38 newly ren­o­vated rooms.

Elected sher­iff nine years later, Gern­hard col­lected delin­quent taxes in Port Clin­ton. The job was finan­cially ben­e­fi­cial in those days since Gern­hard was allowed to pocket all inter­est and penal­ties from those delinquencies.

Earned prof­its allowed him to spend $25,000 to build and fur­nish The Island House, equip­ping it “with every mod­ern con­ve­nience per­tain­ing to the trav­el­ing pub­lic,” a local news­pa­per reported.

In the 126 years since Gern­hard staked his for­tunes at the cor­ner of Perry and Madi­son streets, The Island House has hosted thou­sands, includ­ing politi­cians, Hol­ly­wood celebri­ties and sports figures.

Pres­i­dents Hayes and Garfield stayed while hunt­ing and fish­ing in the area. Humphrey Bog­art and Lau­ren Bacall checked in while shop­ping for a custom-designed boat at nearby Math­ews Boat Lines. Base­ball leg­ends Babe Ruth and Joe DiMag­gio and their New York Yan­kee team­mates made the hotel a reg­u­lar stopover when trav­el­ing to play the Detroit Tigers in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Snap­shots of those vis­its and other his­toric mem­o­ra­bilia now hang in the hotel’s lobby.

Closed in 2005, the hotel re-opened as a com­pletely ren­o­vated condo-tel in 2008. It’s a unique con­cept that allows investors to pur­chase rooms for their own use or add them to the “rental pool” for sub­let by the hotel staff.

“Four­teen of our 38 rooms are pri­vately owned,” Kopechak said.

Guests can choose from stan­dard king and queen rooms or king and apart­ment suites. A whirlpool suite is available.

Novem­ber and Decem­ber spe­cials include week­end “Bed & Break­fast” and “Escape From It All” pack­ages priced at $99 to $229, depend­ing on the room. Kopechak said Thanks­giv­ing, Christ­mas and New Year’s Eve spe­cials are also in the offing.

Reser­va­tions are avail­able by call­ing (419) 734‑0100 or via the Inter­net at port-clinton-ohio-hotel.com.

Jane Beat­hard is a reporter with The Madi­son Press, in London, Ohio.

Posted by Rob Treynor on Nov 1 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.